Our Artistic Director, Andrea Montgomery says:
Intercultural practice (or trans-cultural practice as some prefer) is a journey, one that requires time and commitment, moving forward knowing one will make mistakes. I love mistakes; I find a lot of joy, hilarity and learning comes from mistakes. To get me through, I work with a sort of constantly evolving checklist of messages to myself and others…
Ask yourself: why are we the people to do this now? Are we? Who is it for? Who are 'we'? Should we step away?
If you find yourself sliding into planning a project on someone's behalf, beware. Check in with people, and co-create. Self-expression is not the same thing as self-determination. True co-creation unlocks joy.
Be alert for dominant culture perspectives in funders. Don’t perpetuate them. Try to mitigate.
Apply principles of fairness and good practice equally, but understand how privilege will work against some and for others. Strive for equity not equality.
Celebrate different levels of experience. Let them mingle and celebrate the journey everyone is on, but be clear for audiences about what they will experience. Be alive to new perspectives.
Try to make the structure underpinning the project intercultural and equitable, so that supports what happens in the room.
On an intercultural project you need to agree the rules of working together - be prepared to revisit and adjust - its ok to set a time limit for how long the rules will last.
Remember to think about different cultural attitudes to participation, directness and indirectness (and more) in discussion and rehearsal - plan accordingly.
Understand the concept of intersectionality.
If you are a member of a dominant culture, understand privilege is not something you asked for and it is not something you can give back. Understand that as a dominant culture member, it is your job to work around it and towards equity.
Remember not all who have come to where you are have enjoyed equal paths to the place you are working.
Do not treat a colleague as if they are a representative of their entire race/nation/tribe/gender, but be willing to let them decide how much they wish to speak in that way.
Intercultural competence is understanding that intercultural difference is usually value-based, and learning to live with value dissonance. Keep coming back to this.
Working interculturaly is not 'helping everyone to function well in the dominant culture'. Interculturality is forging a new culture, negotiated from amongst our values, by us all, for however long we want that new culture to last.
Remember that racism isn’t just what it said. It is the whole structure of oppression, erasure and obstacles that actively harm people who do not belong to the dominant group. Be alive to this. Work to oppose it.
Don’t re-traumatize people.
It is no longer enough not to be racist, call out racism.
Set the bar high for white indigenous colleagues: Get them working hard to be informed. Remind them ‘Minority and immigrant colleagues are not there to educate you, unless they freely offer to do so.’
Don't allow minority and immigrant artists to be instrumentalised - forced to be community facilitators - unless they wish to. Don’t let funders and stakeholders treat them this way.
Remember 'Nothing about us without us is for us'.
If something makes you feel more 'comfortable' beware of it!
Have the proper policies in place for safeguarding, and make sure you are clear about hate crime.
When you are tired and want a break, think about the ways in which others around you don’t get to walk away and take a break. Strive to provide respite for all.
If someone describes your privilege, listen. Actively listen.
Do not promise what you cannot deliver.